March 2016 Newsletter

Using wood in innovative and beautiful ways to bring new life to a BC community hub has earned KH Designs the SFI Award, which is part of the 2015/16 Wood Design Awards program and was presented at the annual Wood WORKS! British Columbia awards event.

The Quilakwa Center, in Enderby in the southern interior of BC, is home to the Splatsin boardroom and development corporation offices, a First Nation's arts shop, gas bar, convenience store, and a Tim Hortons restaurant and drive-thru. The winning partnership includes KH Designs, Splatsin, Omega & Associates Engineering and Sperlich Log Construction.

The 13,520 square foot, two-storey structure used heavy timber logs from Downie Timber in Revelstoke, which is part of the Gorman Group of Companies, and the Revelstoke Community Forest Corporation. Both are certified to the SFI Forest Management Standard.

SFI Partnering for Conservation and Community Impact

SFI announced grants for 19 projects to further our understanding of the conservation benefits of managed forests, and to strengthen the connection between communities and forests. The grants were made as part of SFI's Conservation and Community Partnership Grants Program. These grants represent collaborations between SFI Inc., SFI Program Participants, and partner organizations throughout North America.

SFI Receives Land Stewardship Award

The National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) presented SFI with its Land Stewardship Award during the 40th annual NWTF National Convention and Sport Show in Nashville, Tennessee. SFI was chosen for its commitment to conservation, promoting responsible forest management for the benefit of the nation's forests and wildlife, and for partnering to support the NWTF's important work.

The NWTF created the Land Stewardship Award in 1994 to recognize organizations for excellence in land management, partnerships, and NWTF project support. The award also recognizes those who have done outstanding work to benefit natural resources through land stewardship.

One of the ways SFI and NWTF are helping each other achieve mutually beneficial goals is the NWTF's work to promote the SFI Forest Partners® Program. SFI is also pleased that the NWTF will use SFI-labeled materials for NWTF publications such as Turkey Country and JAKES Country magazines. SFI on-product labels are recognized globally and provide a visual cue to help customers source products from responsibly managed forests.

Boxed Water, is a packaged water company that uses paperboard provided by Elopak and Evergreen which are certified to the SFI Standard. The MI SIC contribution was part of the 'Boxed Water Flint Donation Project' which is an ongoing effort to provide relief. The total donation of 69,120 units of Boxed Water cartons are being made to theFood Bank of Eastern Michigan which is handling the water distribution during this crisis along with their normal responsibilities for food distribution.

Boy Scouts of America's (BSA) newest High Adventure Base - the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia - received its SFI Forest Management Certificate for 11,929 acres/4,800 hectares. When added to Philmont Scout Ranch, BSA now has more than 100,000 acres of land certified to the SFI Forest Management Standard!

Forests certified to the SFI Standard now cover more than 280 million acres /114 million hectares in North America stretching from Canada's boreal forest to the U.S. South.

NatureServe available to SFI Program Participants for valuable conservation data

The SFI standard requires Program Participants to

apply knowledge gained through research to manage biological diversity. An excellent source of this data is through the NatureServe network of Conservation Data Centers (CDCs) and natural heritage programs. NatureServe Canada and SFI have recently partnered on informational webinars to enhance the level of knowledge about NatureServe and its role in the SFI standard.

As an example, NatureServe's Atlantic CanadaCDC has a comprehensive dataset on rare species which helps SFI Program Participants in the Maritime Provinces meet the requirements for SFI certification with regard to minimizing the impacts of forestry operations on biological diversity. (Photo: Known from only 2 sites in New Brunswick, this globally rare Van Brunt's Jacob's-Ladder is protected in a SFI managed forest. Credit: David Mazerolle, AC CDC)

This multi-stakeholder conference will provide a forum for conversation around zero-deforestation commitment post COP21, by discussing how far we have come in tackling deforestation risk, implementing policies and collaborating effectively. The agenda confronts such topics as successful multi-stakeholder partnerships between NGOs/companies/governments, overcoming community complexities and embedding policy into performance, and practical steps on how to make successful smallholder engagement scalable.

SFI released the SFI Progress Report Survey and SFI Market Survey this past February. If your company is certified to one of the SFI Standards, we encourage you toshare your insights and stories which will to help demonstrate the value, relevance and credibility of the SFI Standard. The deadline is March 31st, 2016

All organizations with an SFI certificate should have received a personal invitation to access the survey. Please contact rachel.dierolf@sfiprogram.org if you did not receive the invitation, have any questions or concerns, or if you would like to extend an invitation to access the survey to any of your colleagues.

Do Good While you Shop on Amazon

When you shop at AmazonSmile and designate SFI as your desired charity, Amazon donates 0.5% of the purchase price to SFI.

The SFI community is diverse and includes landowners, brandowners, conservation organizations, community groups, the public sector, universities, indigenous peoples and more.

As we continue to grow, we are excited to share not only SFI's stories but the SFI Community's news as well! Please take a few minutes to tweet and post your thoughts or send us your stories so we can share them for you: